Ok, I know it is probably dead and I know it will probably involve a trip to 
a toshiba service centre, but here goes.

My two day old laptop, A60-181, developed a problem with blue screening on 
power up, after searching the Toshiba support forums, I decided that the 
problem require a bios update, I therefore downloaded and started to use the 
windows based update utility, however it locked up mi way through the update 
and now will not power up/post.

is there any chance I could reset the bios, much like you might do with a 
desktop? you by removing the battery or using a jumper etc...?

Soupladel